How balance beam became Utah gymnastics’ greatest strength, rather than its Achilles’ heel

Utah gymnast Adrienne Randall competes on the beam against Kentucky as Utah kicks off the 2020 season in the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020.

SALT LAKE CITY — Let’s get this out of the way first: No one likes to dwell on the negatives of the past. Wax poetic over fond memories? Sure. Pine for the glory days? Absolutely. But reflect on previous shortcomings and failures? No one wants to do that.

So brace yourselves Utah gymnastics fans, as we are about to relive the Red Rocks’ shortcomings on balance beam.

“We are just a lot more sure of what we are doing now. We were very timid before and even though we said, ‘Be aggressive,’ sometimes it still didn’t come through in meets. Now, I think we are channeling it properly.” — Utah sophomore Cristal Isa

You don’t have to go very far back, not even a full calendar year. A trip to the 2019 NCAA Gymnastics Championships is more than far enough.

The Red Rocks were underdogs at nationals last year. Most observers didn’t expect Utah to advance to the second day of the competition, simply because they had to compete head-to-head against UCLA and LSU in their semifinal. Both LSU and UCLA had already beaten the Utes twice that season, so a third time seemed a near certainty.

Utah had other plans, though, and the team actually kind of relished being in an underdog role for change. It showed up on the competition floor, as the Red Rocks started strong on floor exercise. Vault was less than their best, if you’ll recall, but uneven bars was among the best they’d done all year.

After three events, Utah still had every chance to qualify for the second day of nationals.

Beam ruined that.

The Red Rocks fell apart on beam — there is no other way to put it. And unfortunately, that collapse was just more of the same in a season where beam consistently was the team’s Achilles’ heel.

Those beam struggles were so intense, they etched themselves in the minds of the gymnasts. MyKayla Skinner noted after the collapse at nationals that, “It is really hard to end on beam. It is so nerve-wracking.”

Think about that for a moment. Skinner, the gymnast who hit every single one of her routines through three seasons at Utah save for one, the gymnast Utah head coach Tom Farden has called the best collegiate gymnast in America on multiple occasions, considered beam nerve-wracking.

Compare the Red Rocks’ showing on beam at nationals last year to what they did over the weekend at UCLA and, well, there is no comparison.

merlin_1161203.0.jpg — Utah’s Maile O’Keefe balances on the beam during her mount in the Arizona State and University of Utah gymnastics meet at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 24, 2020.

Beam woes aren’t a thing anymore. The 2020 Red Rocks are an elite beam team. They are ranked No. 3 in the nation on the event, have scored a 49.600 or better three times already this year — something only No. 2 Florida and Utah can boast — and have the country’s highest beam score of 49.775.

Abby Paulson has scored a perfect 10 on beam, while Maile O’Keefe and Adrienne Randall have both scored a near perfect 9.975. Alexia Burch and Cristal Isa have each scored a 9.95 — new career-highs — and Emilie LeBlanc has scored a 9.90 from the leadoff position, a role she has taken to like a moth to the flame.

How did the Red Rocks get from point A to point B, and in less than a calendar year at that? How does a team that genuinely feared an apparatus become not only fearless, but among the best in the NCAA?

There are a few reasons, the most obvious being the gymnasts themselves. These are not the same gymnasts. Two-thirds of Utah’s beam lineup is new this year, with Paulson and O’Keefe arriving as freshmen, LeBlanc as a transfer from Maryland and Isa from a season-ending injury.

The freshmen have been especially successful, but that hasn’t surprised them at all.

“I think with Abby and myself, we added a few good routines to beam,” O’Keefe said. “We were strong beam workers in elite.”

LeBlanc, for her part, loves beam. Since she doesn’t compete on floor, beam is the event where she is able to perform and show off her unique personality, and she has done so to great effect. As for Isa, she loves everything so it isn’t surprising that she found room in her heart to love beam.

Utah gymnast Alexia Burch competes on the beam as Utah hosts Kentucky to kick off the 2020 season in the Huntsman Center at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 3, 2020.

Utah’s success goes beyond the new arrivals, though. New and/or different coaching tacts have played a part. Under assistant coach Carly Dockendorf, Utah’s beamers have trained harder, with an emphasis on dealing with pressure. The approach has quite obviously paid off.

“We are just a lot more sure of what we are doing now,” Isa said. “We were very timid before and even though we said, ‘Be aggressive,’ sometimes it still didn’t come through in meets. Now, I think we are channeling it properly.”

That is ultimately the biggest difference. Where the Red Rocks once feared the beam, they are now supremely confident in themselves as individuals and in the lineup as a whole.

“It is confidence,” Burch explained. “Everyone believes that the person that is doing their routine is going to hit and they are going to kill it. It was a decision made within the team. We decided we were going to be confident this year. We are obviously a young team, but we decided we weren’t going to let that stop us. We chose to be confident.”

And beam has gone from being an event where fans gritted their teeth, held their breath and uttered silent prayers to something else entirely.